NON:OP Staff

Christopher Preissing

Composer and Artistic Director

NON:op

Composer, intermedia artist, collaborator, and artistic instigator, Christopher Preissing creates music and sound for live performance, fixed media, and interactive installation. He has been Artist-in-Residence and Fellow at Beloit College, Indiana University, Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Djerrassi, and Atlantic Center for the Arts, and has received awards from Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Illinois Arts Council, City of Chicago, and American Composers Forum. He received a Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship and a Columbus School for Girls Endowed Fellowship in support of residencies at Djerassi and the VCCA. Previous director of the Chicago Composers Forum, and producer of two large-scale productions of John Cage’s Musicircus, he is the founder of the Chicago multi-arts collective NON:op, Open Opera Works. Recent projects include f(H2T) from Here to There, an immersive, interdisciplinary opera (2014, Chicago); I Was Born for This, collaborative installation with 14 channels of sound (2014, Notre Dame); and The Floating City, a score for Kristina Isabelle’s multimedia dance (2013, Chicago). In addition to Thunder, Perfect Mind, an immersive sound-movement opera for soprano, percussion, chorus and dance company, he is working on a setting of Dante’s Divine Comedy with Carmen-Helena Tèllez and with Amey Miller on a sound-book collaboration, In Search of Margaretta Black.

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Harrah Friedlander

Associate Artistic Director

Harrah Friedlander is a soprano from Mobile, AL. She earned her Master’s degree from Northwestern University where she appeared as Amy in Little Women, Emmie Spashett in Albert Herring, Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, and Elle in a production of La voix humaine, which she produced and directed. She has recently premiered several works by contemporary composers, such as Thunder, Perfect Mind by Christopher Preissing. She will Assistant Direct Haymarket Opera’s fall production of Ariane et Bachus. She served as the Assistant Director for the Northwestern Opera Production of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and directed several productions with Northwestern’s inaugural student opera company Chamber Opera Initiative. Harrah performed Bach’s charming Coffee Cantata at the Aspen Music Festival under the direction of Harry Bicket. She has premiered several works by Northwestern composers as well, including Jivin Misra, Michal Novotny, and Conner VanderBeek. Harrah was awarded the Dr. Gerald L. Smith Scholarship for scholastic and musical achievements and graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Performance and an ad-hoc degree in Theatre Studies.

NON:op

Hugh Sato

Associate Artistic Director

Hugh Sato is a collaboration-based new media artist, projection designer, and educator. His research focuses on physical-to-digital interactivity and the relation of the body to reactive installations. His research extends into digital simulations of biological systems, particularly those surrounding networked systems, natural sensory systems and communication between non-human systems, such as plants. He is often found collaborating with dancers, score composers, other interactive developers, and performance artists.

NON:op

Hal Christine

Associate Artistic Director

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/myra-hinrichs-6333187b

Myra Hinrichs

Aministrative Assistant

A graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she studied violin performance in addition to receiving a Mathematics degree, Myra hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota and has now migrated south to Chicago. She is a founding member of the contemporary string trio Chartreuse, and also of the jazz sextet deturtle. In addition to performing with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Madison Symphony, she teaches at several music schools in the greater Chicago area. She is always searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.